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Case study · Bangkok

Gates Foundation ISO/PC 318 Conference in Bangkok

Our DMC Thailand team delivered the ISO/PC 318 meeting in Bangkok for 18 countries: translation booths, secure voting, full event management.

CLIENTBill and Melinda Gates Foundation
DATE2 to 8 February 2019
GUESTS190 delegates
LOCATIONBangkok
Project overview

The Gates Foundation at a Glance

ClientBill and Melinda Gates Foundation (programme partner), Global Development / Standards
Event typeISO/PC 318 international standards meeting with formal voting, run with ANSI
Date2 to 8 February 2019
VenueBangkok (confidential hotel venue)
Guests190 official delegates from 18 countries
ScopeDMC services, hotel contracting, event production, translation systems and secure voting
The brief

The Challenge for the Gates Foundation

An ANSI/ISO compliance conference is not really an event. It is a procedure. Voting integrity, simultaneous translation, documented process, delegates from 18 countries. This one was a meeting of ISO/PC 318, the ISO committee writing the international standard for community scale sanitation treatment systems, work the Gates Foundation has backed from the start, with ANSI representing the United States.

The foundation needed a DMC Thailand company that could be trusted with hotel contracting, ballrooms and production in an environment where a single technical failure could invalidate a vote. There is no "we will fix it in the break" when a national delegation's ballot is on screen. It works first time, or the session is void.

Gates Foundation ISO/PC 318 Conference in Bangkok, produced by Phuket Event Company
Our scope

What We Delivered for the Gates Foundation

  • Acted as the local DMC Bangkok: hotel and ballroom sourcing, negotiation and contracting
  • Full event management and production with video, audio and lighting crews, show caller and event director
  • Simultaneous translation booths with interpreter coordination across multiple languages
  • Secure electronic voting system deployed and administered for the ISO balloting process
  • Delegate logistics for 18 national delegations across the full week
The venue

Venue Facts

  • Confidential hotel ballroom complex, Bangkok, contracted by our DMC team
  • Plenary configured for formal procedure: head table, delegation seating and voting sightlines
  • Four simultaneous translation booths with full interpreter consoles and delegate receivers
  • Technical director Sayan ran the voting and translation systems with full redundancy
Run of show

Run of Show: Typical Session Day

TimeWhat happened
07:00Crew call, voting system diagnostics and translation line check
08:30Delegation arrivals, credential check
09:00Session opens under formal procedure
10:30Technical presentations with live translation
12:30Delegation lunch, seating by country group
14:00Working group sessions
16:00Formal balloting under ISO procedure, results documented
17:30Session close, daily record compiled and archived
Compliance

Permits and Compliance

The compliance here was the event itself: documented voting procedure, verified delegate credentials, archived session records and redundant systems for every critical feed. Hotel contracting, insurance and security coordination were handled by our DMC team to institutional standard.

Lessons learned

What We Would Do Differently

"We would rehearse the full failover live, not just test it," says Sayan. "Every critical feed had a hot spare, and none was ever needed. A full dress rehearsal of failure is the only way to keep it that way."

Results

The Results for the Gates Foundation

The delivery in numbers: a 22 strong crew across seven days, 190 delegates from 18 countries, four simultaneous translation booths, and a 100% vote capture rate across every ballot. Every critical feed ran with a hot spare behind it, because in a room like this, redundancy is not a feature, it is the job.

Kemi, a programme officer on the organising team, wrote: "Your team's discipline gave our process complete credibility."

Every vote recorded, every session translated, every procedure documented to standard. In an event like this, "nothing went wrong" is the highest possible praise, and it is the reason institutions at this level choose experienced DMC Thailand partners.

Services used

How We Delivered It for the Gates Foundation

We acted as the DMC Thailand and DMC Bangkok partner: hotel sourcing, contracting and delegate logistics for 18 delegations. Event production and our AV engineers delivered the plenary, the four interpretation booths and the voting system, and our event management team ran every session under formal procedure.

Planning tips

Planning an International Standards Meeting in Bangkok

Bangkok is one of Asia's most practical cities for international standards and development meetings. Suvarnabhumi Airport has direct flights across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, many nationalities can enter Thailand without a visa or with a visa on arrival, and the city has experienced conference interpreters and large hotel ballrooms. For formal meetings, build delegate credentials, interpreter booking and a voting system test day into the timeline from the start.

FAQ

Gates Foundation ISO/PC 318 Conference: FAQ

Can you provide simultaneous translation for conferences?

Yes. We supply translation booths, interpreter consoles and delegate receivers, and coordinate professional interpreters across the languages your delegations require.

Do you provide electronic voting systems for formal assemblies?

Yes. For this conference we deployed and administered a secure voting system for the ISO balloting process, with results documented to the required standard.

Can you contract hotels and venues on behalf of foundations and institutions?

That is a core DMC Bangkok service. We source, negotiate and contract hotels and ballrooms, manage billing structures and handle the delegate room blocks.

What makes a compliance conference different from a corporate one?

Procedure is the product. Voting integrity, documented process, translation accuracy and audited records all have to be engineered into the event management from day one.

How long does it take to plan an international meeting in Bangkok?

For 150 to 200 delegates from many countries, allow six to twelve months: hotel contracts, interpreter booking and delegate travel all need lead time. Shorter is possible when the venue is flexible.

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